Chapter 13

A Chapter by Amy Skye

Kit and Cress have a heart to heart.

We sat in silence in a dark abandoned gas station break room. For a long moment, all we could hear was the wind shaking the loose panels of the crumbling building. I didn’t bother saying anything, after all what could I say? Instead, my mind hung on the voice that called to me from the radio, was it really my mom or was it just my imagination? Kit had been messing with his radio for the last hour, trying to get in contact with Cage and Owen, while Will counted the steps it would take us to get to Command on his digital map. I walked out the door looking out into the remnants of the abandoned gas station. The windows all blown in from years of weather, the floors covered in leaves and dirt, the aisles scattered and disintegrating. I walked the interior of the building, trying to imagine what this place looked like before the years torn it apart. But mostly trying to keep my space from Kit and Will.

. . .

“Hey,” Will whispered over to Kit, as Cress scoured the store front. Kit looked to him, a sense of tiredness splayed across his face, “are we going to say anything to her about what happened back there?” Kit looked over to Cress, who was looking at an old register.

“What do we say?” he shrugged, “Hey I noticed that, you know, your head healed on its own, in point two seconds, wanna explain?” he mocked, robbing his face with his hands. “Look,” a small smile came over him as her said the words, “if she can heal like that, maybe others can too. Maybe,” he stopped, “We just need to get more information out of her. I know she knows more then she is telling us.” Will knew immediately this was not just about getting back at Anifa, this was about finding Adalee. Will looked over at Cress who was slowly making her way back into the room.

“Listen, you get whatever information you need to help yourself feel better, but don’t let your feels get in the way. She might be able to really help us here.” He said just as Cress walked back into the room.

. . .

“I’m going to go scout the area.” Will said, making eye contact with Kit, and exiting the room, leaving Kit and I alone. I walked over slowly to the opposite side of the room and leaned against the wall. Kit knelt back in his chair and slouched down, looking over at me.

He crossed his arms and said, “You ready to talk yet?” I bit my lip, not knowing what to say, so I just shrugged. He stood up and walked closer to me. “Let’s start with this.” He pushed the hair out of my face, his fingers lightly touching my forehead where I had been injured. The touch sent a chill down my spine. “How?” He asked, I looked up to him, only now noticing the obvious height difference. I swallowed my pride and let the words spew from my lips.

“I am the first successful candidate to come out of Project R.” Kits hand fell to his side, his watch clicking on his pant leg. “They told me, that my genetic make-up is unique, and that I would be able to help more people become just like me.” I paused, looking down to the ground, “No more cancer, no more sickness,” I stopped before the next words came out of my mouth, “No more death.” I looked back up to Kit, who seemed to be processing this new information.

“What does that mean?” he said finally. I struggled to get out the words, as they seemed so arbitrary, a fictional story that I was now living.

“It means I can’t die. I’m immortal.” The word rolled off my tonged like hot acid, and for a moment I felt a sense of relief that I was finally able to say it. Kit’s face seemed to segue through different emotions, first astonishment, then fear, and finally settling on hope. He grabbed my hands and stepped closer to me, sending tingles down my spine. Our eyes met.

“You’re telling me there will be others like you?” he said hopeful. “That more people could have been put through the same experiment?” He held onto my hands even tighter.

“Well, I mean yea, but,” he took me into a hug and I suddenly felt my heart stop. It had been so long sense I had felt the touch of another person in such a way. His scent engulfed my nose with the smell of warmth and cedar wood. He pulled away, snapping me out of it, his hands remained on my shoulders.

“That’s great.” He said with a smile, but my face grew cold.

“No,” I said, his hands suddenly pulled away with confusion, “it’s not. Anifa is using me as a guide to make millions more just like me. Sustainability for human kind, damn the world, and damn freewill. They don’t care if you want it or not. They will force it on you and when you don’t bow to their power,” I paused, “you’re better off dead anyway. The only reason I got out was because someone decided they weren’t going to let it happen,” I stopped, thinking about what Anna had said, “and I still don’t know what that means.” I stepped out from the wall, around Kit and into the center of the room.

“I’m sorry,” Kit said finally, “I didn’t mean it like that. Its just,” he paused, “five years ago, Anifa took someone from me. Someone that I care about.” He walked back over to me, “And seeing what you can do, it gives me hope that, maybe they did the same for her. Maybe, just maybe, she is still alive. And I can find her again.” I looked up and met his eyes, I could see the pain and sorrow in them, but more so now, I could see hope looming on the surface. How can I tell him that I had been in the Vat for a hundred and fifty years, and that there was no way that she is like me. All I could do was nod, and with that nod, relinquish all affection I had developed over our short time together. I knew, once he found out he would never forgive me for giving him false hope. But I let him have that hope, because sometimes hope is the best bet we have against a cruel world.

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